The Monster Within

CHAPTER THREE

I WAS still staring at the ring when Ethan came back into the cottage.

“Everything okay in here?” He cocked his head at me. I probably did look a little strange staring at my own hand.

I held my hand up, facing the ring toward him. “What was this doing in a box under the sink?”

“What?” He narrowed his eyes and met me in the kitchen, taking my hand in his. “Where did you find this?”

I pointed to the wooden box on the floor. “Why would you put my ring in a box with animal bones and leaves? What’s going on, Ethan?”

He bent down and inspected the box. “Sam, I’ve never seen this stuff before. None of it. I couldn’t even tell you what these things are.” He stood up and looked at the ring again. “That can’t be the same ring.”

If he were anyone else, I wouldn’t have believed him, but I knew Ethan wouldn’t lie to me. We were always honest with each other, which was why I hated keeping the incident at the gas station a secret.

“Where’s my ring? What did you do with it after I died?”

“I put it away. I couldn’t look at it. It just reminded me you were gone.” He lowered his head like he was ashamed of seeming weak.

“That makes sense.” I rubbed his arm, trying to let him know I understood. “But now that I’m back, could you get the ring for me? I’d like to wear it again.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I left it at a storage place my cousin uses. It’s not too far from here. I could get it in a few days, after we get settled.”

“Thanks.” I forced a smile and took off the ring, placing it on the counter. If it wasn’t the one Ethan had given me, I didn’t want it. Especially after it had shared a box with animal bones.

“I’ll get rid of this.” Ethan picked up the wooden box. “I’m not sure what it was doing here anyway. Rick isn’t a hunter or anything. I don’t know why he’d have animal bones lying around.”

They weren’t lying around. They were being kept in a box. There was a big difference, but I didn’t think insulting Ethan’s cousin was a good idea. If it weren’t for his cottage, we’d be homeless. But more than that, I wasn’t in a position to insult anyone after what I’d done.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning and painting. By nighttime, the place looked…bad. But that was a step up from uninhabitable, so we were making progress. Ethan had even thought to bring a deadbolt for the front door. There wasn’t much he hadn’t thought of.

“Hungry?” Ethan asked, bringing in a bag from the car. I recognized it from the gas station and shuddered. “We should close some of the windows now. It’s getting a little chilly outside.” He put the bag on the table and started shutting the windows. If only that were the reason I was shivering.

I opened the bag and saw dinner consisted of crackers and bottled water.

“Sorry, they didn’t have black licorice.” Ethan put his hands on my shoulders. “I’ll check the general store in the morning. They usually have that kind of stuff.”

“You’ve been here before?” I took a seat and opened the box of crackers.

“A few times, when I was a kid. My aunt and uncle used to come here in the summer. My mom and dad let me come with them sometimes.” He looked around. “Obviously that was a long time ago.”

“Obviously.” The décor wasn’t from this century. I laughed but immediately felt guilty. I couldn’t be happy, not after…

“You can decorate it any way you want. Doesn’t matter to me.” He shoved a whole cracker into his mouth and took a swig from his water bottle.

I smacked his arm. “You’re going to choke.”

“What, you don’t know mouth-to-mouth?” He grinned, and bits of cracker spilled onto the table.

“Very attractive.”

“Just trying to make you smile.”

There wasn’t much to smile about, but I didn’t want Ethan to think I wasn’t grateful to be alive, to be here with him.

I reached for his hand and squeezed it. “You don’t have to try to make me smile. I’m happy just being with you.”

“Oh yeah?” He raised an eyebrow, and I knew he was up to something. “Then let’s try a round of ‘Where would you rather be?’”

I laughed. It was a game we used to play when the cancer treatments made me too sick to get out of bed. “You sure you want to do that?” I mocked him, gesturing at the dilapidated cottage.

“I think I can handle it. Lay it on me.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Part of the game was picturing yourself in the place you wanted to be. I was usually so good at it that I could smell the ocean and taste the salt in the air. My dream place was the beach. I hadn’t been there since I was diagnosed with cancer. My parents went all out and got us a week at the best resort in Myrtle Beach. We drove twelve hours there and back, but it was worth every leg cramp and crappy oldies song Dad had made me suffer through. I loved the beach. And they’d let Ethan come along.

“Earth to Sam,” Ethan said. “Did I lose you to this dream location?”

“I’m walking out on the pier at Myrtle Beach. The warm breeze is blowing through my hair. The waves are gently crashing against the shore, and I’m holding hands with this smokin’ hot guy.”

“Anyone I know?”

I shrugged and opened my eyes. “Maybe.”

“Oh, I see how it is.” Ethan nodded. “All right, what’s fair is fair. My turn.” He closed his eyes. A devilish grin formed on his lips, but then he reached across the table and took my hand. “I’m having dinner with the most beautiful girl in the world, and we are about to start our new life together. Just the two of us. And there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

A single tear escaped my eyes, and I smiled. Because that was Ethan. Absolutely perfect. For a moment, I forgot that I was a monster who didn’t deserve him.

There were no dishes to clean up, so after we put the box of crackers in the cabinet over the stove, we were finished with dinner. We looked around the place, trying to figure out what to do next.

“Want to watch some TV?” Ethan walked over and fiddled with the ancient TV in the living room. I watched as he pressed every button on the set and the remote, but all he got was static and more static. He gave the screen a good whack with the palm of his hand before giving up completely. “Or we could talk.”

The couch cushions were airing out in the yard so it wasn’t like we could sit comfortably, even if the TV was working. We were slumming it.

“Actually, I’m kind of beat. I think I’d like to go to sleep.” I motioned toward the bedroom, and my cheeks got hot.

“Okay.” He studied my face for a moment. “Do you want me to take the floor tonight?”

“No. Don’t be silly.” I took his hand and led him into the bedroom. I was trying to act normal, but it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I was nervous. Here we were, alone in our place. I felt like a kid playing house. Only I wasn’t a kid, and neither was Ethan.

He’d brought clean sheets, so at least there was a thin layer of protection between us and the mattress that might very well have been older than the both of us combined. I folded back the top sheet, patting down the wrinkles. I felt like a damn hotel maid doing turndown service, not like a seventeen-year-old girl going to bed with her long-term boyfriend. It was pathetic. I was pathetic.

“Hospital corners, impressive,” Ethan mocked me.

“I’m sorry. Why is this so hard? Why don’t I feel like me?”

“Come here.” He sat down on his side of the bed and reached for me. I took his hand and sat next to him. “How don’t you feel like yourself?”

How did I answer that? I was dead—or undead. I’d killed a man. I was hiding out in a tiny broken-down shack in the middle of the Poconos, and I was keeping things from the one person I trusted most in the world. I didn’t feel like me, because this wasn’t me.

But I couldn’t say that.

“I guess it’s just hard to know how to act. The last time I was alive, I had cancer. There’s a big part of me that doesn’t remember not being sick.”

“You know what I think?”

I shook my head.

“You need to stop thinking.” He cupped the side of my face in his hand and brought his face closer to mine. “Want me to help?” He stared into my eyes, making sure I was okay with this. Thankfully, I was. Being with Ethan was normal, and I wanted normal. I leaned forward, brushing my lips against his. He welcomed the kiss and pulled me closer to him.

Ethan was right. I needed to stop thinking. So, that’s what I did. I let myself get lost in him. In us. I kissed him the way I had before the cancer got so bad I could barely function. I kissed him like a normal teenage girl kisses her boyfriend. He returned each kiss with more hunger and passion than I’d ever felt. My head spun, and I loved every second of it.

We didn’t do anything we hadn’t done before. He didn’t want to push me, and I loved him for that. By the time my eyes closed, I was out of breath and completely content. No bad thoughts. The world only consisted of Ethan and me.

I slept soundly until around three-thirty. I heard a wheezing and opened my eyes, expecting to see Ethan snoring next to me. He was quiet. The noise wasn’t coming from him. It was coming from me. My hands shook with cold, and my lungs struggled for air.

Oh, God! It was happening again. Just like at the gas station. The image of the man with the cowboy hat rushed into my mind. I remembered how warm he’d felt. How I’d wanted to take that warmth from him. And I had. I’d stolen his life.

Ethan rolled onto his side, and without realizing I was doing it, my hand crept toward him. My fingers brushed against his shirt. Heat radiated from his body. My breathing started to calm down, like when I’d touched the man’s leg. No! I pulled my hand away and scrambled out of the bed. I wouldn’t do that to Ethan. I couldn’t hurt him. Not him.

I ran from the room and struggled with the deadbolt Ethan had installed on the front door before hurling myself into the night. My body was giving up on me, betraying me with every step, but I forced myself to move forward. To get away from the cottage. To get away from Ethan.

I tripped over the paint can Ethan had left on the front steps and fell forward onto the grass. My chin hit the ground, and I winced in pain. Why did the universe want me dead? I got to my feet and headed for the car. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew I wouldn’t get there on foot. I was too weak. I reached for the hidden key in the hideaway box in the front wheel well. If I hadn’t already been having trouble breathing, I would’ve held my breath as I got in the car and started the engine. I prayed Ethan wouldn’t wake up at the sound. Please, let me get far enough away that I won’t hurt him.

I threw the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway. I could barely control the car. My limbs were weak, and steering was nearly impossible. I pulled onto the road, and tires screeched to a halt. I focused my energy on hitting the brakes before I totaled Ethan’s car. The headlights of the other car stopped right alongside me. I didn’t crash. I was okay.

The driver threw his door open, yelling curse after curse at me. He stormed up to me and flung my door open.

“What the hell are you doing? You could’ve killed me, you stupid bitch!” He reached inside the car and grabbed my arm. His touch was so warm. I felt his blood in his veins. Instinctively, I reached for his chest.

“Hey!” He smacked my hand away, but I persisted. “Listen, honey, I’m not gonna lie. You are pretty easy on the eyes.” I ignored him and slipped my hand under his shirt. “Well, okay.” He pulled his shirt over his head. “Maybe this almost accident wasn’t so bad after all.” He leaned toward me, and I reached for his neck. I felt the life coursing through his body and into mine. He bent his head toward me, thinking I wanted to kiss him, but before he met my lips, he choked.

“What?” He coughed, but I held on to him. I knew what was happening, yet I couldn’t stop. I watched in horror as the skin around his eyes wrinkled with age. His hair turned gray and started falling out of his head in clumps. Still I clung to him, drinking in every last bit of life as it left his body. His knees buckled, and he slumped onto the road right outside my door.

No longer connected to him, I was flooded with emotion. I’d killed again. My hands shook, but this time, it was out of fear. Fear of myself. I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t become this hideous creature that killed to survive. Yet that was exactly what I was.

I could hear a car’s engine coming toward us. I had to do something. Fast. Fueled by adrenaline, I dragged the man to the passenger door of his car and got him inside. Then I got back into Ethan’s car and pulled it back up the driveway, just enough that it wouldn’t be in the road anymore. I raced back to the guy’s car and got in the driver’s seat. I put the car in drive and peeled out. I cringed, hoping I hadn’t left tire marks on the road. Too late to worry about it now. I drove about a half-mile to a big decline. One thing about the Poconos, there were plenty of hills. I put the car in park and dragged the guy across the seat so it looked like he was driving. I slumped him forward onto the steering wheel and buckled his seat belt around him. I closed his door and ran around to the passenger side. I put the car in drive, lunged back out, and slammed the door as the car started down the hill.

I hoped the car wouldn’t hit anything too bad. The guy was already dead. I didn’t want the car to explode and the police not to be able to identify his body. Although even his family might not recognize him now, all balding and wrinkled. Tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t handle this, any of it. I sprinted for Ethan’s car, not caring that my bare feet were being torn up by the gravel on the road. I stuck close to the edge of the trees, in case any more cars came down the road, but the night was quiet. I was sweaty by the time I reached Ethan’s car and drove it back up to the cottage. I returned the key to the hideaway box in the wheel well and slipped into the house.

After bolting the door I took a moment to catch my breath. I was a mess in more ways than one. My chest heaved and tears streamed silently down my cheeks. I couldn’t go back to bed like this. I needed to get cleaned up first.

I tiptoed to the bathroom and closed the door behind me. Ethan was a pretty sound sleeper, but I had no idea how loud the water would be coming through the old pipes in the cottage. I locked the door and worked out an excuse before I turned on the faucet. If Ethan heard me, I’d simply say I couldn’t sleep.

The pipes clanged as the water made its way to the shower. I slipped out of my pajamas and got into the stall. The water wasn’t hot by any means. Lukewarm at best. But it washed the tears from my face as I let the emotions of the past twenty-four hours consume me. I’d come back from the dead and killed two people. Sure, the guy from tonight had been a total creep, screaming at a young girl and then trying to make out with her. I was less than half his age. But that didn’t make what I’d done okay.

Nothing made that okay.